Rabbi Freedman, Yasher Koach on your "chazara on Tochen" shiur. I listened to it as a chazara since I am also learning Tochen currently. I wanted ot offer one (not very consequential) comment on the shiur. In the discussion of the Rashba"s opinion of "l"alter" you quote the Bais Yosef as saying that no one argues. And you comment that he does not cite the Shiltei Giborim who does argue. My comment is that the Bais Yosef and Shiltei Giborim were contemporaries, and most likely the Bais Yosef did not even know what the Shiltei Giborim said about this subject. This is just my guess because they were both born around the same time in Spain and the Bais Yosef left as a child. Regarding the Shiltei Giborim, I was thinking that the distinction between borer l"alter and tochain l"alter could possibly be understood as follows: Borer does not change or make any tikun to the object of the melacha - it merely seperates it. So when you separate the food (ochel) and eat it, it is if you did nothing. Whereas by tochain, the very act of chopping or grinding changes the object no matter whether you leave it afterwards or eat it immediately. By borer, the seperated ochel, if left, gets its own identity, if you will. But if eaten, it does not get an identity distinct from the mixture - you merely took a piece out of the mixture and ate a piece of the mixture. If, on the other hand, you left the seperated piece for later, it becomes a seperate item, distinct from the mixture. Tochain does not work that way. It"s new character is not dependent on whether it stays around until later. These were just my musings on the Shiltei Giborim. Much Hatzlacha. George Lintz